Medium-term Employment Challenges. CEPS Special Report, January 2010

Abstract

The findings of this comprehensive study undertaken by CEPS for the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities are intended to contribute to the identification of reforms and policy measures that are potentially the most significant for Europe to ensure growth and jobs in the medium term. The assessment of employment prospects during the period up to 2020 will now have to take account of the effects on the labour force of the 2008/2009 downturn. Consequently, employment policy will, over the medium term, face the particularly difficult challenge of reconciling the longer-term objectives with immediate concerns about the exit from and the aftermath of the crisis. Member States will also have to encourage the development of new activities associated with adaptation to climate change, while expanding services and products for older citizens. A comprehensive set of recommendations concerning the content and governance of the European Employment Strategy (EES) is provided in the full report on this study, authored by Iain Begg, Professorial Research Fellow, London School of Economics, Christine Erhel, Professor, Université Paris and Jørgen Mortensen, Associate Senior Research Fellow, CEPS. Three annexes providing supplementary research by additional authors Mathilde Guergoat-Larivière of the University of Paris and Ilaria Maselli of CEPS are appended to this report.